
Class £W-^¥ 



Book. 






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PROCEEDINGS OF A GALLED MEETING 

^liuister^ of all '§[cUgiou.$ gcuomiiiatious 

IN lilK, ' T 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 

I N '1' 1 1 K 

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH ON THIRTEENTH STREET, 



IN RRKERENCK TO THE SORE HEREAVl-IMKNT UIIICII TlIK COINTHY HAS 

SUFFERED IN THE SUDDEN DKCEASE OF OUR BKLOVED 

CHIEF MAGTSTUATK, 



WITH Till'; 

Remarks of Rev. Dr. Gurley, 

ADDRESSED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

ANDREW JOHNSON, 

AND THK 

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. ; 

McGILL k WITHEROW, PUrNTEKS AND STKREOTYPERS. 



PKOOEEDINGS OP A CALLED MEETING 

OF 

^im$tn'^ 0f all §leIigt0H5 5^i);0mmati0ns 

IN THE 

DISTRICT OF COLU-MBIA, 

IN THE 

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH ON THIRTEENTH STREET, 

IN REFERENCE TO THE SORE BEREAVEMENT WHICH THE COUNTRY HAS 

SUFFERED IN THE SUDDEN DECEASE OF OUR BELOVED 

CHIEF MAGISTRATE, 



WITH THE 



Remarks of Rev. Dr. Gurley, 

ADDRESSED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

ANDREW JOHNSON, 

AND THE 

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

MoGILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STJEREOTYPEKS. 
1865. 



^^'^^ 



:rqtr 



MINUTES 



The Ministers of the different religiovis denominations in the 
District of Columbia convened in the First Baptist Church, on 
Thirteenth street, at 9 o'clock, A. M., April 17, 1865, in pur- 
suance of a call of six of their number, which had been pub- 
lished in the daily papers, as follows : 

To Clergymen of all Religious Denominations in the District of Columbia. 

Beloved Beetheen : You are each and all respectfully requested to meet 
in the First Baptist Church, on 13th street, Eev. Dr. Gillette, at 9 o'clock, 
Monday morning, the 17th inst., to consider and take such action as may 
seem wise and proper with reference to the sore bereavement our country 
has suffered in the sudden decease of our beloved Chief Magistrate, Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

P. D. GURLEY, 
Pastor of J^eiu York Ave. Presbyterian Church. 
A. D. GILLETTE, 

Pastor of First Baptist Church. 
CHAS. H. HALL, 

Rector of Epiphany Parish. 
W. M. D. RYAN, 
Foundry Methodist Episcopal Church. 
J. G. BUTLER, 

Pastor Lutheran Church. 
WM. H. CHAINING, 

Pastor of Unitarian Church. 



The meeting having been called to order, the Rev. J. G. Butler, 
Bastor of the Lutheran Church, nominated, and, on his motion, 
the Rev. B. D. Gurley, D. D., Bastor of the New York Avenue 



Presbyterian Church, Avas unanimously called to the Chair. 
After a few impressive remarks, he opened the meeting by a sol- 
emn invocation of the Divine blessing. 

On motion, the Rev. C. H. Hall, D. D., was elected Secretary. 

It was then 

Resolved, That a Committee of one member from each of the religious 
denominations be appointed to draft and present to the meeting an appro- 
priate Preamble and Resolutions, upon the subject for which the Clergy were 
convened. 

On motion. 

Resolved, That the Chairman of the Committee be first appointed. 

Whereupon, on nomination, the Rev. Dr. Hall was elected 
Chairman of the Committee. 

On nominations by several members, the following ministers 
were chosen as the Committee : Rev. W. B. Edwards, D. D., of 
the Methodist Church ; Rev. A. D. Gillette, D. D., of the Baptist 
Church; Rev. Septimus Tustin, D. D., of the Presbyterian 
Church, 0. S. ; Rev. J. N. Coombs, of the Presbyterian Church, 
N. S. ; Rev. Wm. F. Butler, of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Zion Church; Rev. Daniel Bowers, Methodist Protestant Church; 
Rev. J. Geo. Butler, of the Lutheran Church ; Rev. Wm. H. 
Channing, D. D., of the Unitarian Church; Rev. Jabez Fox, of 
the New Jerusalem Church. 

While the Committee were in session, in the Pastor's study, 
the meeting engaged in religious exercises. 

The Committee returned, and, by their Chairman, reported 
the followins Preamble and Resolutions : 

Tlie hfe of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation has been taken by the 
hand of an assassin, without one circumstance to relieve the barbarity of 
the deed, or save it from the universal execration of the civilized world ; 
in the hour of his respite, after unusual toils in the holiest labors of his 



high position ; the efforts to re-establish peace and quietness in this dis- 
tracted country ; to extend to all offenders against the Constitution and 
Laws the largest amnesty ; to hold out the most generous terms of recon- 
ciliation and concord, and to limit, as far as possible by human agencies, 
the suffering and miseries of this once happy and united people — a murder 
so remorseless and iniquitous, that pity for the misguided criminal is lost 
in detestation and abhorrence of his crime. 

The sick room of the distinguished Statesman who co-operated with the 
President in all his plans for a restoration of this Union upon a sound and 
permanent basis, whose helpless condition at the time would have dis- 
armed the rage of all ordinary malice, has been invaded by an atrocious 
murderer, whose fell thirst for blood would stop at no amount of violence, 
and the very excess of whose evil passions alone caused his brutal hand to 
strike wide of his mark ; and a peaceful home has been filled in a few 
short moments with a burden of sorrow and anguish too dreadful to con- 
template with common control of reason. 

A tragedy has been accomplished in each case which fills the land with 
mourning, draws again the gloomy pall over -the signs of our national 
rejoicing, leads us to ask in trembling anxiety, Lord! how long f and 
pollutes our city with blood which cries from the ground and enters into 
the ears of the Lord of Hosts. Had the victim in either case been an ordi- 
nary man, there would be reason enough for our expression of righteous 
indignation ; but when the lives of the chief men of the Nation have been 
assaulted with intentions so vile and iniquitous, of whose limit we can 
only form wild conjectures, we are called upon to speak out and unite in 
expressing the sentiments of all civilized, not to say Christian men : 
therefore. 



Hesolved, That, in our belief, the crime of murder, when committed 
against the person of the Chief Magistrate of a great nation, invades 
the person of God's anointed and defies the sovereignty of the Almighty, 
whose servant he is ; has received the severest condemnation of the 
sacred writers, and masses in one black epitome the sum of all the 
crimes against the whole people, thus reached in destroying their head — ■ 
chosen once, and again in this instance, by the votes of a free nation — and 
leaves all ordinary blood-guiltiness lagging far behind it. The apostle 
teaches us, that "the Powers that he are ordained of Ood." The President 
of the United States and the Secretary of State are such ordained Powers, 
whose persons and lives until now have ever been held sacred and invio- 
lable by all men, good and evil. We express more in sorrow than in anger 
our instinctive detestation of the crime, and profound grief that the 
history of this free people and this once peaceful city has been stained by 
a page which exceeds in horror the attempted or successful murders of 
rulers in any nation of past or modern times. " Vengea^ice helongeth unto 



the Lord! " but righteous judgment according to law is committed by Him 
to men. May He show His power in arresting the criminals in these 
assassinations, and purifying our land from the pollution of their guilt ! 

Resolved, That the Chief Magistrate of this nation, as a man and as our 
Ruler, deserved the sincere respect of all good and loyal citizens for his hon- 
esty and integrity of purpose, manifested in his unremitted endeavors to 
carry the Nation through its unexampled trials and perils; in his unfeigned, 
hearty zeal for the rights of all men and races committed to his trust by 
Almighty God and by the votes of his countrymen ; for his mercy and 
leniency to all misguided and erring citizens; for his humble walk and con- 
versation in his high office ; for his unabated zeal in tempering the horrors 
of civil war with the condonations of executive clemency, and for his reso- 
lute maintenance of the majesty of the law, with the largest possible 
charity consistent with its sacred promptings. The erring and the guilty 
have lost a friendly heart, to which they could always appeal in their hour 
of anguish and despair. The country has lost a Head, which it trusted 
with generous impulse from its experience of his honesty and ability. We 
mourn a man who will henceforth be enshrined in the grateful memories 
of millions, as second to none of his predecessors in patriotism and philan- 
thropy. 

Resolved, That it becomes us, in this troubled hour, to recall our faith in 
the sovereign Providence of Almighty God in guiding the destiny of this 
great Nation. He has scourged us bitterly for our sins — in this sad calamity, 
most bitterly. We bow to His divine allotment, and confessing the sins 
which have deserved punishment, pray with one heart, that He, as He alone 
can do it, may bring light out of darkness, and good out of evil, and make 
the manifold forms of human suffering now darkening our land effectual to 
work out in us and our fellow-citizens a true conversion and amendment of 
life ; that among us, fruits meet for repentance may be "abundantly brought 
forth, and that the glory of His grace may be made known among all na- 
tions, now and to future generations. 



Resolved, That as residents of the Capital, we record and proclaim our 
common judgment of reverence and esteem for the late Chief Magistrate, 
as a citizen among us, known to all men for his virtues, kind to all and 
easy to be entreated, ready of access to the humblest of his neighbors, 
affable and unassuming in his address, and bearing his high office in the 
Nation with an evident desire to use it for the good of all parties — even 
the unthankful and the unworthy. If his political enemies charge him 
with errors of the head, we shall search here in vain for those who will 
indict him for errors of the lieart; or if there were any such, they were 
those that leaned to clemency and pity. Few men could have passed 



through his trials during this civil war with so sincere and universal re- 
spect and affection from his fellow citizens. Few would have wrung the 
hearts of all who knew him by such an untimely fate ! 

Resolved, That we respectfully offer to the distinguished Statesman 
whose assassination was intended as the companion act and complement of 
this great crime, our deep sympathy, and the assurance of our prayers for 
his recovery, and that of the son who so bravely cast himself in the path 
of the destroyer ; and for his family, that God would vouchsafe them the 
comforting strength which they need, and sustain them in this hour of 
their grief and anxiety. 

Resolved, That we present to the widow and family of the late President 
of the United States our assurance of sympathy in their loss — our prayers 
for them, that the Father of us all would take them into His keeping, and 
heal the wounds which human affection can only deplore, but may not 
reach. 

Resolved, That, as Ministers of religion of this District, we commend to 
the congregations under our charge the devout consideration of the dread- 
ful calamity which has befallen us and them ; that we also commend to 
their prayers the afflicted families which have been called to mourn. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect, we wear the usual badge of mourn- 
ing upon the left arm for sixty days, and that we attend the funeral ser- 
vices in a body. 

Resolved, That whilst, with a depth of sorrow which we have no words 
adequately to express, we deplore the fall of our late Chief Magistrate, 
we nevertheless rest in the sincere hope that in the acknowledged ability, 
unyielding integrity, and thoroughly tried patriotism of his successor, our 
afflicted and sorrowing countrymen will find a happy guaranty that the 
interests of the Republic will suffer no detriment by his accession to the 
Executive chair. 



Resolved, That we, as a body representing the several religious denomina- 
tions of Christians in the District, will lose no time in waiting upon our 
Chief Magistrate, Andrew Johnson, and tendering to him our warmest 
sympathies, our affectionate confidence, and our most earnest support, with 
the pledge of our constant prayers that his administration may be happy 
and prosperous, and that it may speedily secure the highest aspirations of 
our afflicted and bleeding country by the restoration of unity, peace, and 
universal freedom. 



Resolved, That, in view of the weighty responsibility thus so suddenly 
devolved upon him, we commend to the devout prayers of all Christian 
people the President of the United States and all others in authority, that 
God would so replenish them with the grace of His Holy Spirit, that they 
may always incline to His will, and walk in His ways ; that He would 
endue them plenteously with heavenly gifts, grant them in health and 
prosperity long to live, and finally, after this life, to attain everlasting joy 
and felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

C. H. HALL, Chairman, 

A. D. GILLETTE, Secretary, 

J. GEO. BUTLER, 

W. B. EDWARDS, 

J. N. COOMBS, 

W. H. CHANNING, 

DAN'L BOWERS, 

WM. F. BUTLER, 

JABEZ FOX, 

SEPTIMUS TUSTIN, 

Committee. 

C. B. MACKEE, Presbyter. 

ALFRED HOLMEAD, Grace Church. 

C. LEPLEY, Lutheran. 

W. M. D. RYAN, Foundry M. E. Church. 

T. B. McFALLS, Assembly's Presbyterian Church. 

T. R. HOWLETT, Calvary Baptist Church. 

J. H. C. BONTE, Christ Church, (Episcopal,) Georgetown. 

J. H. M. LEMON, Union Chapel. 

W. Y. BROWN, Presbyterian, U. S. A. 

J. T. WARD, Ninth Street M. P. Church. 

R. H. BALL, Ninth Street M. P. Church. 

GEO. V. LEECH, Waugh M. E. Church. 

JOB W. LAMBETH, Fletcher M. E. Church. 

W. B. EVANS, Presbyterian, (N. S.) 

H. N. SIPES, East Washington M. E. Church. 

ULYSSES WARD, Ninth Street M. P. Church, Washington, D. C. 

JAMES MITCHELL, Minister of the M. E. Church. 

WM. S. FORT, Minister of the M. E. Church. 

M. J. GONSALVUS, Chaplain, U. S. A. 

SAMUEL M. SHUTE, Professor, Columbian College. 

MAYBERRY GOHEEN, Minister of McKendree Chapel. 

W. B. MATCHETT, Baptist. 

OLIVER COX, Potomac Mission. 

JACOB HENN, German Evangelical Missionary. 




WM. H. CAATPBELL, Presbyterian. 

0. P. PITCHER, Missionary, Y. M. C. Association. 

J. N. DAVIS, Pastor Gorsuch M. E. Cliurch. 

J. EASTBURN BROWN, Episcopal, Georgetown. 

P. HALL SWEET, M, P, Church. 

JOHN CHESTER, Presbyterian. 

R. R. GURLEY, Secretary of the Colonization Society. 

ED. C. MERRICK, Local Elder M. E. Church. 

J. M. MUSE, City Missionary. 

B. B. EMORY, M. E. Church. 

J. L. HAYGHE, M. E. Church. 

M. A. TURNER, M. E. Church. 

B. H. NADAL, M. E. Church. 

JOS. B. STITT, M. E. Church. 

B. NEWTON BROWN, M. E. Church. 
W. B. EDWARDS, M. E. Church. 

W. W. WINCHESTER, Congregationalist. 
W. T. JOHNSON, Second Baptist Church. 
WM. F. BUTLER, John Wesley Church. 
JNO. LANAHAN, Presiding Elder, Virginia District. 
JAMES PECK, Pastor Asbury M. E. Church. 
E. H. GRAY, Pastor of E Street Baptist Church. 
JOHN A. WILLIAMS, Galbraith Chapel. 
WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING, Unitarian. 
J. B. JONES, Assistant Pastor, Congress Street Methodist Protestant 
Church, Georgetown, D. C. 

C. W. WALKER, Chaplain First Regiment N. H. H. A. 
J. N. COOMBS, Pastor of Western Presbyterian Church. 

DAN'L BOWERS, Pastor of Congress Street Methodist Protestant 

Church, Georgetown, D. C. 
JOHN DICKINSON, M. E. Church. 
C. W. PRITCHETT, Methodist Church. 
SAM'L D. FINCKEL, G. E. Church. 
J. R. DAVENPORT, officiating at St. John's Church. 
E. M. BUERGER, German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church. 
G. W. SAMSON, President Columbian College. 
C. C. MEADOR, Pastor of Island Baptist Church. 
DANIEL H. PARRISH, Pastor First Cong. Meth. Church. 
T. N. HASKELL, Presbyterian Church. 
R. J. KEELING, Trinity Parish. 
W. A. HARRIS, Episcopal. 
C. R. V. ROMONDT, Reformed Dutch Church. 
L. S. RUSSELL, St. John's, Georgetown, D. C. 



10 



Pending the diseussion of these resolution!?, the Kev. Dr. 
Tustin, oiiered two additional resolutions, and the Committee 
were allowed to retire, in order to make such verbal altera- 
tions as seemed proper to harmonize them with their re^Dort, 
^nd incorporate them immediately before the last Resolution, 
as originally offered. 

On motion of Rev. Mr. Evans, it was 

llesolved. That a Committee of six be appointed to wait upon the Presi- 
dent of the United States, and inform him of the desire of this meeting to 
pay him a visit, and to ascertain at what hour it will be convenient for 
him to receive us. 

The Committee of six was appointed by the Chairman, aa 
follows: Rev. W. B. Evans, (chairman,) Rev. Drs. Tustin and 
Channing, and Rev. Messrs. Hewlett, Brown, (Metli.,) and 
Holmead, and were allowed to retire upon this mission. 

Resolved, That the Preamble and Resolutions of the Committee, as 
amended, be adojjted and signed by those ministers who are present. 

Those present proceeded to the clerk's desk and affixed their 
signatures. 

On motion, 

Resolved, That tlte ministers of the District who are absent from this 
meeting are invited to unite with us in signing these Resolutions. 

Resolved, Tliat the city papers be requested to publish the proceedings 
of this meeting, and that the Clerk be directed to furnish a copy for that 
purpose. 

Resolved, Tliat the proceedings of this meeting be printed in pamphlet 
form, and that the Rev. Drs. Gillette and Kail be a Committee to superin- 
tend the publication. 

On motion of Rev. J. Lanahan, 

Resolved, That the Chairman and Secretary of this meeting be and they 
are hereby appointed a Committee to communicate to the family of the late 



11 



President, and also to the Secretary of State, the proceedings of this 
meeting. 

Resolved, That we meet at the New York Avenue Presbyterian churcb, 
at 11 o'clock, A, M., on Wednesday, April 19, and proceed thence in a 
body to attend the funeral services of the late Chief Magistrate. 

The Committee of sis here returned and reported by their 
chairman, Rev. Mr. Evans, that they had been favored with 
an interview with the President, and that it was his desire to 
see the members of this body at once, at his room in the 
Treasury Building ; whereupon, on motion, it was resolved to 
adjourn after appropriate devotions. 

Rev. Dr. Gillette, on the call of the Chairman, offered a 
solemn and appropriate prayer, and the meeting adjourned to 
visit the President of the United States. 

After the members of the Convention had been severally 
introduced to the President, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, their Chair- 
man, addressed him as follows : 

Mk. Peesidest: The persons now standing around you are Ministers of 
the Gospel of different religious denominations, residing in the District of 
Columbia. We have been in session in one of our Churches for several 
hours to-day, considering what utterance' we ought to make, and what tes- 
timony we ought to bear, touching the sore and sudden bereavement which 
has come upon the Nation. Our meeting was large, solemn,' and tearful ; 
our proceedings were delightfully harmonious ; and we unanimously and 
cordially adopted certain resolutions pertaining to our late lamented Chief 
Magistrate, and to j^ou his successor in ofHce, which the Secretary of our 
meeting will now read in your hearing. 

Here the foregoing Resolutions were read by the Rev. Dr. 
Hall, and when the reading was finished, Dr. Gurley resumed 
his address, and said : 

After the reading of these resolutions, I hardly need to add anything to 
what I have already said. These resolutions, Mr. President, convey to you 



our feelings, the feelings of our every heart. As we carried your prede- 
cessor daily in the arms of our faith to God, so will we carry you to Him 
also, and pray for you without ceasing, that the same hand which guided 
him so wisely and so well, may guide you in like manner. As you enter 
upon the grave and responsible duties of the position you have so unex- 
pectedly been called to fill, and as you continue in those duties, we shall re- 
member you in our closets ; we shall remember you before our family altars; 
we shall remember you in our social meetings for prayer and praise ; we 
shall remember you in our sanctuaries, and in the presence of our congre- 
gations, upon each returning Sabbath, and the burden of our united peti- 
tions on your behalf will be, that the God of our fathers, and our God, 
will give you that wisdom "which \?' first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy 
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and 
without hypocrisy," May that wisdom be your guide from the beginning 
to the end of your term of office, and, under its guidance, may your admin- 
istration redound to the advancement of the cause of truth and justice, 
of law and order, of liberty and good government, of pure and undefiled 
religion, and may the day soon come, and you live to see it, when the nation 
shall emerge from its trials with augmented purity and vigor, and be re-es- 
tablished upon a foundation that never can be moved — the foundation of 
liberty and righteousness, of unity and peace. 



After a pause, and in perfect silence of the interested group 
of nearly sixty ministers of all denominations, the President, 
evidently oppressed by his emotions, began somewhat slowly, in 
a low voice, w'hich grew earnest as he proceeded, and reached 
every heart, nearly as follows : 



Gentlemen : I feel overwhelmed by this occasion, and utterly incompe- 
tent to the task before me, of makiiag a suitable reply to you : and it may 
be that silence and the deep feelings of my own heart are the best answer 
I can give you. I thank you for this visit and this expression of your 
sentiments. I feel deeply solemn in view of this whole scene, and in 
listening to the eloquent words which have been spoken and read to me. 
I feel overwhelmed by thoughts of the position in which T am so suddenly 
placed and the duties which have devolved upon me. But amid all 
this natural feeling, the assurance which you have been pleased to give me, 
that I shall have the countenance, the assistance, and the prayers of such a 
body as this is, is most gratifying to my heart. It is possible, it is natural, 
that you should desire to know something of the future administration of 
afl'airs, and I can onlv sav to vou, as I have said to others, that my course 



in the past must be the guaranty of what I hope to do in the future. I 
call upon you to take notice, that I have entered upon my office with no 
manifesto — no proclamation, with no propositions of changes or new 
policy of my own. In entering on the performance of duties so important 
and responsible as those before me, I can only say to you, that the course 
of events must decide, as they arise, what shall be the measures best 
adapted to promote the good of the country. My whole life has been 
based on the profound belief, in which I have never wavered, that there is 
a great principle of right, which lies at the basis of all things. I have 
always trusted to that principle as the certain support of all who abide by 
it — the great principle of right, and justice, and truth. I shall trust to it, 
and guide the administration of public affairs in conformity to it. I should 
feel anxious for the future, but that I have an abiding confidence in the 
strength of that principle, and in Him who founded it. I thank you for 
the assurance which you have been pleased to offer me. I have heard the 
fervent words which you have uttered and read to me of your love for the 
great man who is gone, and I feel them all ; your opinions of his mercy 
and clemency, and I respond to them heartily. The true point which is 
to be made by us is, where these must stop, when they shall be conformed 
to the rules of right and justice. It is the great question of the hour, and 
I shall try to administer the government in such a manner, that it shall 
deal out to all, with impartial hand, that which the merits of each 
demand. In my opinion the time has come when you and I must under- 
stand and must teach that treason is a crime, and not a mere difference of 
political opinions. I have listened with emotion to the language in which 
you have expressed so clearly your abhorrence of the crime which has 
deprived the nation of its Chief Magistrate and filled the land with mourn- 
ing. You have characterized it justly, but it may not be too much to say 
it is diabolical — for in fact this deed was devilish. We mourn together 
to-day over the calamity that has fallen upon the countr\'. I feel that 
our beloved country will pass through the troubles of the present. I say 
again that I put my trust in the great principle which underlies all our 
institutions, and believe that we shall come out of this struggle to a better 
and higher life. The government has not accomplished its mission — but 
under the benignant smiles of the Almighty it will yet fulfil it. The 
country will triumph in the end, and these great principles will be firmly 
established. 

Again I cordially thank you for your presence on this occasion, and for 
the expression of your sympathies in this hour of the nation's peril. I 
trust that in confidence in the great principles of which I have spoken, and 
with your countenance and prayers, I shall be enabled to succeed in 
restoring peace and concord to this now distracted and unhappy country. 

The individuals present responded to certain portions of his 



14 



remarks with a fervent amen, and at their conclusion again 
approached, and with each a word of encouragement and bless- 
ing took leave of the President, who seemed greatly cheered 
by the promised aid of the representatives of the religious 
bodies of the community, in the arduous labors to which he 
had been so suddenly and sadly called. 

P. D. GURLEY, Chainnan. 
Chas. H. Hall, Secretary. 



'PJe73 



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